Student shellfish poster recognized

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono.

Emergency services responded promptly to the scene and the student has been transported to a local hospital. The student’s family has been informed.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 or you may call the Dean of Students Office at 207-581-1406.

An investigation is underway and more details will be released when they become available. Our thoughts are with the student and their family.

Long Road has been cleared and is now accessible. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lieutenant Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

April 16, 2021 About the Lab, Lab News & Views

Congratulations to Sarah Risley, Melissa Britsch, and Sara Swett for their award winning poster! They received honorable mention among the posters presented at the Maine Water and Sustainability Conference on April 1, 2021.

Check out their poster, entitled, Integrating Local Ecological Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge to Understand Complex Relationships in Two Maine Estuaries, here.

The abstract follows:

The Damariscotta and Medomak River Estuaries are complex social-ecological systems, where varied groups of stakeholders use and value their ecosystem services, including food, clean water, and areas for recreation and marine-related industries. Collecting data in these systems is often challenging, requiring extensive field work and scientific expertise. These limitations lead to data gaps that restrict the capacity of municipalities to manage coastal resources, like the softshell clam fishery. As an alternative to traditional survey methods, we conducted a participatory mapping study to document local knowledge about these estuaries. Participatory mapping (PM) is a research methodology that solicits expert local knowledge to produce geospatial data. Study participants (n = 52) included recreational and commercial fishermen, local researchers, and sailors, among others. Preliminary results include spatial data for human use activities and shellfish populations in the estuaries, showing ‘hotspot’ locations with many shared uses or distributions of commercially important shellfish species. The study also documented hypotheses about change and drivers of change in the estuaries through qualitative interviews. We demonstrate that local knowledge and PM can help fill data gaps and aid in managing complex marine ecosystems by gathering social and ecological data in tandem. We propose that researchers and resource managers can facilitate a discourse between local knowledge and scientific knowledge through the use of PM and local knowledge. Although in the preliminary stages, we posit that the collective use of these diverse sources of knowledge can improve civic capacity, inform management practices, and ultimately lead to more resilient coastal ecosystems.